Darren Oliver: Playing in dad's uniform

I'm finally playing on a team my father, Bob Oliver, played for. When you consider how many teams I've been with in my career, and all the different teams he played for, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.

I have a lot of memories of being younger and coming to Angel Stadium with my father. To be honest, though, I wasn't watching the games all that much back then. I was really young and I was simply too busy playing around and probably doing things I wasn't supposed to be doing.

My dad had a few good seasons offensively when he played. He could hit. But back then the game was very different. If you hit 20 home runs and drove in 80 runs in his day, you had one heck of a season.

Here's another example of how the game has changed: During the offseason, my dad worked as police officer with the Santa Ana Police Department while playing for the Angels. Back then, the guys had to work in the offseason to make a decent living. I can't imagine having to work in the offseason, but I guess you do what you have to do.
My dad's living in Sacramento now and is happily retired.

My dad was taken in the 49th round of the MLB Draft. He's a good story in perseverance. Not too many guys make it to the big leagues from that position. That helped me when I was coming up in the Minor Leagues. He was always there when I was making my way up through the minors. Now, though, we mostly talk about my kids and stuff like that.

Darren Oliver, playing for his eighth team, is 2-0 with a 3.63 ERA for the Angels this season. His dad Bob, a right-handed hitter, played for five teams, including the Angels, over eight seasons, batting .256 with 94 homers and 419 RBIs.

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.